{"id":28291,"date":"2024-04-08T18:44:00","date_gmt":"2024-04-09T00:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-politics-reporters-expulsion-from-a-republican-gathering-causes-uproar\/"},"modified":"2024-04-09T00:44:00","modified_gmt":"2024-04-09T00:44:00","slug":"colorado-politics-reporters-expulsion-from-a-republican-gathering-causes-uproar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-politics-reporters-expulsion-from-a-republican-gathering-causes-uproar\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado politics reporter\u2019s expulsion from a Republican gathering causes uproar"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Colorado
Colorado Sun reporter Sandra Fish, left, turns over media credentials to a Pueblo County sheriff's deputy and arena security staffer during the Colorado Republican Party's state assembly inside Southwest Motors Events Center on the state fairgrounds in Pueblo on Saturday. The state GOP had Fish ejected from the event because party chairman Dave Williams said he believes the outlet's \"reporting to be very unfair.\" (Ernest Luning\/The Gazette via AP)<\/span>dur-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

DENVER \u2013 Politicians and news outlets in Colorado expressed outrage on Monday over the expulsion from a Republican gathering of an experienced politics reporter who was told the state party chairman believed her reporting was \u201cvery unfair.\u201d<\/p>\n

Journalists and elected officials, including the former chair of the Colorado Republican Party, came to the defense of Colorado Sun reporter Sandra Fish. The controversy follows the contours of attacks on the press nationally, partly brought on by former President Donald Trump with the popularization of the term \u201cfake news.\u201d The ejection also appears to have influenced an endorsement Monday in the Republican primary race.<\/p>\n

The state Republican Party announced on the social media platform X that it was endorsing U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert over one of her primary opponents, Deborah Flora, in the state\u2019s 4th Congressional District race, partly because \u201cDeb Flora lied about participating in the CD4 Assembly process, & now she\u2019s boot licking fake journalists who only help Democrats.\u201d<\/p>\n

The post was a direct reply to Flora\u2019s post on X defending Fish, in which Flora said the expulsion was \u201cwrong and a violation of the First Amendment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Party Chairman Dave Williams, who introduces himself on the state GOP website as \u201cDave \u2018Let\u2019s Go Brandon\u2019 Williams,\u201d is seeking the nomination to run for the 5th District seat held by Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, who is retiring from Congress.<\/p>\n

In a text, the MAGA-aligned Williams said he had no apologies for kicking Fish out of the assembly in Pueblo on Saturday and accused her of being a \u201cfake journalist\u201d and The Colorado Sun of being biased. When asked, Williams did not provide examples. The Colorado Sun is an independent, nonprofit and nonpartisan news outlet that covers Colorado.<\/p>\n

\u201cI invite anyone to share any example of The Colorado Sun or Sandra Fish being unfair or inaccurate. So far I have heard nothing,\u201d said Larry Ryckman, editor of the news outlet. \u201cThe Founding Fathers weren\u2019t any big fans of newspapers back in the day. But they understood that a healthy democracy demands free, unfettered press.\u201d<\/p>\n

The assembly about two hours south of Denver was partly to select representatives to the Republican National Committee and to work on a party platform for the election.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are 900,000 Republicans in the state of Colorado and a lot of unaffiliated voters who are interested in what happens at this assembly. And how they find out is via reporters like me being there to cover it,\u201d Fish told The Associated Press by phone Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am, as one person on Twitter noted, a little old lady. And I\u2019ve been in this business for a long time, and I just don\u2019t think it\u2019s right to eject a reporter from a meeting like this,\u201d said Fish, who has covered politics since 1982.<\/p>\n

Fish said she heard rumors prior to the event that she\u2019d be barred from attending, and she asked event organizer, Eric Grossman, who texted her Thursday that he\u2019d get back to her.<\/p>\n

\u201cThanks. I\u2019ve been covering these assemblies for at least seven cycles and have never had issues before,\u201d Fish texted back. Ryckman attempted to reach Williams on Thursday night to discuss, but said Williams never responded.<\/p>\n

Before dawn on Saturday, Grossman texted Fish saying she wouldn\u2019t be included on the press list and that \u201cthe state chairman believes current reporting to be very unfair.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI went anyway because, come on, this should be an open event,\u201d said Fish, who was checked in and given press credentials that she wore around her neck along with a Colorado Sun nametag.<\/p>\n

About an hour later, security asked her to leave. Fish showed her press credentials, then Grossman arrived and soon a sheriff\u2019s deputy was called. Fish left with the deputy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe make no apologies for kicking out a fake journalist, who actually snuck into our event,\u201d Williams said in a text. \u201cHer publication is just an extension of the Democrat Party\u2019s PR efforts, and the only backlash we see is from the fake news media, radical Democrats, and establishment RINOs who hate our conservative base.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grossman, in a text, said Fish\u2019s actions were \u201ca selfish political stunt.\u201d<\/p>\n

Republican state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer defended the reporter, writing in a post on X: \u201cSandra Fish is a fair; honest and respected reporter, as a Republican I\u2019m embarrassed by the GOP chair.\u201d<\/p>\n

Former Colorado Republican Party chair Kristi Burton Brown also chimed in on X, describing Fish as \u201chard-hitting but fair. \u2026 This is a dangerous take by the current (Colorado GOP). \u2026 Transparency is necessary for our nation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among other stories, Fish has reported on how the Colorado Republican Party under Williams\u2019 leadership paid for mailers<\/a> that subtly attacked one of Williams\u2019 primary opponents, and that fundraising slowed<\/a> under his chairmanship.<\/p>\n

Bedayn is a corps member for the Associated Press\/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. <\/em>Report for America<\/em><\/a> is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Republican Party Chairman Dave Williams called reporting \u2018very unfair\u2019 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28292,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[266,28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-28291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-election","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28291"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=28291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}